Well, this is certainly interesting.
Les Miles appeared on a Houston radio station Friday to talk about the Tigers, and he apparently had some pointed thoughts on the new LSU head coach. Host Josh Innes asked Miles about LSU’s over/under for the 2018 season set at seven wins, which led Miles into a monologue about Ed Orgeron asking for fans’ patience.
“I never accepted the feeling of, ‘Hey, you need to have patience.’ When you say you need to have patience aren’t you just really saying to your team you’re not good enough,” Miles said, via The Advocate. “Because I want you to know something, I never took the field with the Tigers where I didn’t think I wasn’t going to absolutely kick somebody’s tail ... Period ... I never asked, ‘Hey, give me a break here.’”
For the record, Orgeron asked for fans’ patience... in the spring game. LSU is working in a new offensive coordinator in Steve Ensminger and running an open competition between three quarterbacks.
Miles then said this, unprompted: “Certain people need to have a safety net. If you need a safety net you need not coach for the Tigers because the Tigers are your safety net. They are the winningest, toughest, most committed group of men that I have been around.”
Miles and Orgeron have a complicated history. Miles hired Orgeron as his defensive line coach ahead of the 2016 season, a supposed game-changer hire after Miles was nearly axed in 2015. That didn’t work, though, and it was Orgeron who was named LSU’s interim after Miles was fired four games into the 2016 season -- after LSU nearly hired Jimbo Fisher the prior fall, before Miles snuffed out the palace coup LSU AD Joe Alleva unsuccessfully orchestrated -- and Orgeron was named LSU’s full-time head coach in late November of 2016.
Orgeron went 6-2 as LSU’s interim and 9-4 in his first full season as head coach; Miles was 9-3 in his final full season at LSU.